Chaang Noi is welcome to bid and win this share, I have no interest in restricting people from selling their profit sharing portions to others.

Why don't you use that CIYAMOpen site from the guy here (Ian Knowles) to have task based bounties Theymos? You could easily add any small features and fix bugs that way. There is plenty of money on the site for it.

@BadBear: We already confirmed from Theymos that donations are not used for paying mods. Why are you confused about that or what I said? Please scroll up to this post and re-read it. No where am I saying that that is the problem, nor is paying mods a problem. Donations and ad purchases were solicited to "create a new forum", 12 months later still nothing, nothing but a surplus of funds. Asking for funds from the community for a purpose and never bothering with that purpose is not only misleading, it could be argued as fraudulent, like a charity asking for donations for a specific purpose and instead spending it on something else or never spending the money. This is 2013, we have higher standards now. Where is the new forum?

Two that immediately come to mind (there are entire threads about this though).

12 months ago I donated 10 BTC to you to make a new forum. You have since then collected over 6000 BTC and continue to collect on a regular basis, under the guise of "creating a new forum", yet you have yet to create a new forum.

Please present a status report of your progress in the past 12 months with creating the forum. Thanks.

I didn't mean get a job in real life, I meant get some work in bitcoinland.

Where did I say otherwise? The issue with donations is different than the issue with ad space. The issue with ad space is that it's not only opaque, it's downright misleading. No one cares if the mods are paid, they care that it's not mentioned and instead it claims it's for use in creating a forum (which isn't happening). The issue with donations is that it mislead people to donate large amounts of money (6000 bitcoins) in order to do something that was never done, in 12 months time, and instead of doing that more funds are continuously collected.

Basically, Theymos is guilty of what BFL is guilty for. Accepting shitloads of money on promise to deliver, and not only not delivering, but continuing to find reasons for needing money (despite having an insanely large surplus of it, hundreds of times what is needed for the proposed use). I question his integrity by not addressing and admitting this. Where is the new forum software Theymos? Don't you think it's dishonest to solicit money from the community for a "good cause" and then just sit on the money and never "get around" to using the money for the intended purpose? Don't you think lying about what you'll do in order to get donations is a type of scamming? People didn't donate so they could make you rich. They donated so that the new forum could be created.

Help them find work instead. That's the best help you can ever give a begger. My opinion on forum e-beggers is clear (see signature).

Well, there's also donations of course, which I'm sure many people now feel they made mistakes giving as the funds did not go to the purpose advertised now after 12 months.

I agree with you that if you don't want to support the business of bitcointalk.org, you shouldn't buy ads, but I think it goes a bit beyond that, down to lending credibility by even using it. I'm pondering the right thing to do right now. If it were just this, I could excuse it perhaps, but that dirty broken reputation system that is basically a toy for slander is borderline last straw.

I went to Karaoke with Andrew a few weeks ago and he had told me about that. He basically sold that site to MtGox. I don't think he is connected to MtGox at all, but that doesn't have anything to do with the major concerns which (again) are:

• Soliciting donations from the community under the guise of creating a new forum (and never even starting said development)
• Gathering now 6000 BTC under the guise of creating a new forum and not spending on said purpose, instead spending it to pay whom Theymos wants to pay (without notice of any kind to the community before or after receiving and spending said funds)
• Developing a broken reputation system that encourages spam, extortion and removes the right to defend from the victims of such, in order to avoid giving BFL a scammer tag all while allowing BFL to continue to fund the forum with advertising revenue despite their consistent fraud

Yes, the forum is a for-profit company that is just unregistered. We have proven this in this thread already.
Yes, Theymos is free to do whatever he wants on his website. It is "none of our business".
Yes, it is a lie to continue soliciting donations under the guise of creating a new forum and the lies need to stop.
Yes, it would be better for the reputation of this for-profit unregistered company if more transparent announcements were made about what is going on with all the riches the community bestowed open it out of good will (and under the guise of something that is 12 months late).

You can argue and shoe shine this turd all you want, but without transparency, without a fair reputation management system that allows for rebuttals and petitions for removal, and most importantly, without both a clear explanation of where funds are going (no sleezy wording) before soliciting them, and actual progress on said intentions, there is no reason to support this business. All we're apparently doing is enabling laziness, taking away our right to vote further with our money (they don't need anymore), etc.

edit: Yes, it is absolutely fine to pay moderators if you must, although there is no need to on this server, with hundreds of willing trustworthy parties interested in contributing their time to a good cause. That is a different complaint for a different thread though.

This type of ignorant cultism is embedded deep into the scam of bitcoin. What once was a tool for decentralizing payments, has now become the bait and switch product at MLM meetings full of blind and gullible libertarians. All their cultist leaders need to do is say that someone is after the group and they will instinctively pay to the nose to their leader in a false belief that it somehow helps their cause, instead of making a few people rich. The government is the last group of people bitcoiners need to worry about in 2013. The real danger is following the cultists who try to sell you on paying for their own products and services as "helping bitcoin succeed" and begging you to not let them fail, all while flashing around money and bragging about the success they've had (on the cult follower's dollar of course).

A message to bitcoiners: stop making leaders with your money. You don't need one. That was kind of the point.BTC

Sincere questions receive sincere responses. Your question is a troll. Soliciting donation funds for acceptance is not begging, it also has nothing to do with me. I inquired on behalf of the conference, which is a non-profit.

Post sincere questions and they will be answered. Try to stay on topic though, as you keep forgetting Charles received the same treatment and Inaba has yet to clarify any points of transparency. Do you think the fund is legitimate or just an attempt to save face publicly?

(Edit: You seem to insist on attacking me personally instead of discussing the topic, which is BFL's transparency or lack thereof, and the now questionability of their legitimacy. If you can agree that their legitimacy with the fund is questionable, then your negative opinion of me is irrelevant and does not need to be repeated on every thread I am active in. Stay on topic.)

As most of you may know, I took a leave of absence after a somewhat manic episode (one I am still paying for) in September of last year. I had returned in the spring with a much calmer attitude and a deeper understanding of the petty nature in which I had been attacking people, the short sightedness in business, and the lack of care I was giving myself that led to some major stress which obviously affected my mental health a bit.

Despite apologizing to the community at large and contacting over 100 of the people involved in my bet to settle with them and make things right once again, I didn't expect niceties and a welcome party. I've successfully ruffled the feathers of various emotionally unstable people on this forum by criticizing them regularly, but for the most part I have strived to build new and better things, especially through healthy criticisms. Criticizing, debunking hacking, testing boundaries, these all made me who I am today for better or worse.

Loving and respecting all forms of criticisms, I looked deeply into the criticisms against my bet and spent months rethinking my activities, true intentions, value to the community, etc. It was obvious to me that no matter how much opposition I would meet, no matter how many people would try to push me down out of fear of ghost, no matter how much it cost me, I must do the right thing. I have paid now more than half of the people involved in my bet, paid back all debts from businesses endeavors, and forgiven all debts to me from others.

I don't expect anyone in this thread to like me, and I don't mind it if they go on finding reasons to be angry and spread their venom. It's self destructive for them, but it doesn't affect me. It does interest me to see so many people so eager to associated me with scams, petty theft, etc though, as if people forgot the good I do. It's insulting of course, but I tell myself that it is o be expected as backlash for my trolling. Regardless, I happened on this thread from another forum member (thanks) and I found it odd that I was associated with this by a respectable mod, that no scam had occurred, and yet people were so quick to judge me without even asking for proof or asking me anything.

Firstly, and I've had to repeat this quite a lot, I've never scammed anyone. There is not a single debt that I have not paid, in fact I'm well known for overpaying when possible. Despite my overactive energy and love of playing tricks and games, I am a first and foremost a builder. I help people do what they want to do.

Second, when reading that an account's IP address was associated with me, and that that was reason enough to have a moderator lead people to believe I was involved in an attempt at petty theft, it's mind numbing and insulting.

Lastly, what bothers me the most is that this isn't even a scam. From what I can tell, an account was created who posted a thread and nothing more (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Again, I fully expect to me trolled by those who were hurt or annoyed in some why by something of said or done, but I want to say this as loud and clear as possible. I am not a scammer. I do not scam. I have never scammed. I hope eventually the rational thinkers were learn this in watching my future endeavors, but it is obviously not a requirement for me to continue on with my life and continue to build things people want and need.

I hope this community will learn to stop hurting itself with greed and paranoia. Cheers.

That's true, I'm not sure of those stocks are legitimate sources for a loan though. Even the legally registered Bittalk Media shares (I hold 23.5%) were going to be used for a loan to pay some business debts after my fall out last year, but a malicious board member formed a hostile takeover and blocked sales of shares while attempting to remove shares from me through shady ways. That has forever changed my opinion of the real value of shares in anything. As a side note, people buying shares of fly by nights on the forums always amazed me.

The Ellet was being designed 3 months before "Bitcoincard" ever made any announcements. There were 3 prototypes, each smaller and sleeker than the previous. One prototype video was put up on Youtube as well, but but funding had been a problem (costs about a million bucks for a run of 50,000 of them). With the advances of technology and taking what we learned since then, the old Ellet model no longer makes sense (Apple and Google will end up capturing that market themselves). There were thousands of dollars invested into the Ellet by generous people in the community. Despite being defrauded and spending most of the funds on development of prototypes and design by the company, I personally paid back each and every investor out of my own pocket. Talk about integrity.

Ironically, that is what "Bitcoincard" did. Where is their product? And yes, I agree that my presentation was off (I seem to remember apologizing for that publicly too).

If you mean "unforgiving", I am thankful there are sane people (mostly), but that doesn't stop me from constantly pushing for something better. Integrity does not take a vacation when you are not affected personally by something. Real integrity calls you to seek out and shed light on deception and corruption. You have always seemed like a rebel of sorts, disinterested in being a part of a corrupt system. In this instance however, it seems you're defending the corruption (Maged too). It's disappointing to me that a normal user of the forum needs to call this out, and that other moderators who make waves are kicked out.

Of course having someone who has different interests can be interesting, but I was more referring to someone who can understand and appreciate universal concepts such as freedom, choice, opportunity, etc. Bitcoin shouldn't be the root of decention between people and I don't understand why it is for so many.

I've never been involved in "deceptive business practices", and whatever mistakes my companies or I have made, I've always made up for them, keeping transparency and customer interests above my own.


Vladimir's integrity matches Theymos' in this instance. I wouldn't want to have a forum with either one of them in charge any longer. In the past 2 years I've learned that despite my constant mistakes and few manic episodes, I have more integrity than most of the people I've worked with. Many of the "leaders" in this community have fallen to greed, are slaves to paranoia, cannot accept criticism or admit their faults and mistakes, and continue to try and excuse their shady business practices in any way that benefits them.

This last episode, finding out that BFL ad money goes to pay moderators who are kicked out for mocking BFL and are not able to give BFL a scammer tag, is just one of a long history of accepted acts pf corruption. Eventually everyone will need to stand up for what they believe in and ask questions, and for me that was this week. Rather than dismiss everything as being ramblings of jealous people, why not ask yourself what you have to lose from accusations being true?

All I can see is more evidence that his community needs to start seriously considering developing an actual non-profit forum of its own aside from this business.

I don't understand why so many people are married to women who don't care about what they're interested in. Is this typical behavior when finding a mate, to not care about what they're interested in nor look for someone with similar interests?

I don't live in the US. Every president is a liar from day one, because they do not control the US or its policies, money does. We aren't talking about corruption, we're talking about common sense. No one in the history of the US has ever been sent to Guantanamo Bay for refusing to give the FEDs a password to a bitcoin wallet. When that changes, let me know so I can agree with you. Until then, it's extremist nonsense that makes the few remaining good people on our side not want to help you.

If this forum is just a business, one that has deceptive business practices and misrepresents their intentions, then there is no reason to support the business any longer.